Lawyer says court seizes Al Arab Al Yawm assets; management disputes claim

AMMAN — Security forces on Monday morning implemented a recent court decision to seize the assets and properties of Al Arab Al Yawm newspaper “by force”, said employees’ lawyer Mahmoud Qteishat, but the daily disputed his claims.

“This is the court’s second decision to seize the newspaper’s properties… the first was issued two weeks ago, but the newspaper’s administration prevented its implementation,” Qteishat told The Jordan Times over phone on Monday. 

He added that the newspaper’s properties are to be sold at auction to cover dues worth JD500,000, including unpaid salaries for three months in 2013 when the paper was closed down, as well as compensation for arbitrary dismissals, under the court decision.

The lawyer noted that the seizure decision does not mean closing down the newspaper per se.

However, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Osama Rantisi, dismissed as baseless the news of the property seizure, adding that the court decision is related to guaranteeing a JD2,500 compensation for a former journalist  at the paper over a “labour dispute”.

He criticised the “exaggeration” in dealing with the issue, and said the Amman Court of First Instance’s employee was accompanied by approximately 30 police officers. 

Rantisi stressed that “there is nothing to prevent the publishing of the newspaper.”

Qteishat, who represents 68 employees and journalists, said he had reached an agreement with the newspaper’s publisher, Elias Jreisat, and Jordan Press Association (JPA) President Tareq Momani on a payment programme under which the publisher pledged to pay the dues, but the agreement was not implemented, which led the lawyer to resort to court.

“Al Arab Al Yawm is an authentic newspaper that has a distinctive tone… it is unfortunate that we have to go through such procedures,” the lawyer said, noting that employees who did not receive their salaries were in danger of imprisonment as they were unable to pay bank loans and other debts.

The newspaper’s management said in a statement that it is working to reach settlements to guarantee the rights of “former colleagues”, and that it is following up on the case of laid-off employees to settle their problems in accordance with the relevant legal measures. 

The newspaper currently has 35 employees — including journalists, managerial and technical staff members — and prints over 15,000 copies daily, according to Rantisi.

Commenting on the issue, Momani said the newspaper’s management violated employees’ rights in laying them off with no guarantees or compensation.

“The court’s decision is final and means to give workers their professional rights,” he said, calling on all media institutions and newspapers to respect the rights of their employees.

In July 2013, Jreisat, chairman of board of the National Group for Media Investment, which publishes Al Arab Al Yawm, suspended the daily’s publication for two months over financial difficulties. The paper returned to newsstands in December that year with a change in form and content.

The daily now focuses on pan-Arab issues more than local matters, with news reports and opinion pieces written by journalists and columnists from Jordan and other Arab countries.